Salmon Harvest to Provide Local Food Pantries Fresh Salmon

Group efforts are being made at the Strawberry Creek Salmon Spawning Facility to provide fresh salmon to people facing food insecurity across Door County.

• Strawberry Creek Salmon Spawning Facility, the process of how they process and harvest the chinook salmon.
• Adam Peronto the Philanthropic Services Officer at the Door County Community Foundation describing how the harvest helps local food pantries.
• Jesse Landwehr, an Operations Supervisor with the Wisconsin DNR describes the collaboration with local pantries.

(The following is a transcription of the full broadcast story)

The Door County Food Pantry Coalition, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, and Baileys Harbor Fish Company are taking part in the fresh salmon harvest.

The harvest provided 11,000 pounds of salmon, which will go to local food pantries in Door County.

Adam Peronto is the Philanthropic Services Officer at the Door County Community Foundation, he says the Community Foundation has a fund called the Door County Food Coalition.

Which consists of these nine food pantries across Door County from Washington Island to Maplewood.

• Door of Life Pantry
• Feed and Clothe My People
• Holy Name of Mary Food Pantry
• Koinonia Kupboard
• Lakeshore Cap Food Pantry
• Stella Maris Care 24/7 Food Pantry
• Sturgeon Bay Community Church Pantry
• Washington Island Community Health Program Food Pantry

"The food pantries they'll have [salmon] available for their patrons to come in and take at any time," Peronto said.
Each month the pantries will get an allotment of salmon. The coalition will distribute monthly portions of salmon to each pantry.

Peronto says that the food pantries have seen a growth in the number of people they serve.

"We've been able- we've been seeing that each food pantry their numbers have been increasing year after year," Peronto said.

Jesse Landwehr, an Operations Supervisor with the Wisconsin DNR says instead of taking the fish to a landfill when they die, they work with communities so they can use the fish.

"What we do is we coordinate with as many food pantries, local food pantries, animal rehab centers, zoos, places like that to donate the fish to so they're being utilized," Landwehr said.

However, he says if the fish are not developed or overdeveloped the salmon are purchased by a company that turns them into bait.

The Door County Food Pantry Coalition says they plan on continuing the harvest with the DNR and Baileys Harbor Fish Company in the future.